Abstract

Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) is a general term
that refers to a toolset for fault detection and isolation, and for
performance measurement. Over the years, various OAM tools have been
defined for various layers in the protocol stack.
This document summarizes some of the OAM tools defined in the IETF in
the context of IP unicast, MPLS, MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP),
pseudowires, and Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL).
This document focuses on tools for detecting and isolating failures in
networks and for performance monitoring.
Control and management aspects of OAM are outside the scope of this
document. Network repair functions such as Fast Reroute (FRR) and
protection switching, which are often triggered by OAM protocols, are
also out of the scope of this document.
The target audience of this document includes network equipment
vendors, network operators, and standards development organizations.
This document can be used as an index to some of the main OAM tools
defined in the IETF. At the end of the document, a list of the OAM
toolsets and a list of the OAM functions are presented as a summary.